The EU wants to ensure greater sustainability in agricultural trade with the Global South -- with the aim of minimizing the environmental and climate-damaging effects of importing crops such as soya, palm oil, coffee, and cocoa. However, this aspiration is often not fulfilled in practice.
Researchers have developed a new approach to identifying options for the sustainable trade of agricultural products. This approach requires a refined analysis that shows how relevant the individual products are for the EU and the country of origin and what leverage effect they have. The researchers found that over 80% of the land deforested for EU production is used to grow soya, palm oil, cocoa, and coffee.
Soya, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, sugar, or hazelnuts -- in only a few cases is the cultivation in the countries of origin outside Europe truly sustainable. For example, rainforests are cleared and valuable grasslands are used for palm oil and cocoa plantations and soya monocultures, and harmful pesticides are used in the cultivation of cocoa and hazelnuts.
The researchers discovered that soya, palm oil, cocoa, and coffee account for more than 80% of the land deforested for the cultivation of EU products. In addition, based on the high relevance and leverage values, they found that much of the influence of the EU is focussed on a few groups of countries with specific export profiles.
In the case of highly relevant agricultural goods such as soya and palm oil, which together account for almost two thirds of the EU proportion of deforestation in partner countries and one third of the footprint, it is up to the EU to reduce this relevance. For example, it could regulate demand by promoting more sustainable livestock farming or a low-meat diet in the EU. However, examples from the recent past show how sensitively global trade should be handled.
Environmental Issues Environmental Policy Geography Environmental Policies Land Management Resource Shortage Urbanization
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